THE BOWERY BOYS on DVD: continuing discussion of Warner's eventual release plans

I was just joking around. Following the logic of Lee's post about how movies should be full screen on 4x3 TVs, I guess he would want to see LoA in pan and scan though.

Sorry, I guess I am humorless today, especially when someone is talking about full screen over OAR.  I am laughing now.

I have always preferred fullscreen over widescreen. I would rather see a full picture as opposed to one with a black bar at the top and the bottom.

Has Warner's obtained acceptable prints of all the Bowery Boy movies? If not, which titles are they still looking for?

Agreed, Jeff. I still am eagerly awaiting the release of this series, trying to be as patient as possible (not that I have any other choice!). But I just hope Warner doesn't get bogged down just because one film is not as "sharp" as others, or one cannot be located, or whatever. There will always be appreciative fans happy to buy, as well as some who will complain that every little detail is not "perfect".

As for presenting the later films in their proper OAR, I'm all for that. As has been said, this is the day and age of Widescreen TVs. HOWEVER -- it's not a deal breaker for me, I'd just like Warner to be aware of that as well; even if they cannot produce all the latter movies in widescreen OAR, I'll be content to get them all in  4x3, rather than not at all.  

From what I understand Warner is planning to release the
widescreen films in their original aspect ratio.

edited
Edited by Joe Karlosi - 10/21/09 at 4:12am

You know, with popular titles going the DVD-R route, I really don't understand how all 50+ of these are going to get released unless they throw them in one big box at a reasonable price.  As I said in another thread, it seems like studios need more to buy these releases than just those who viewed them when they were released or first shown on television.  Yet, to my knowledge, Warner hasn't done a single thing to get these films any spotlight.  The only new fans these films will have are those who got the Public Domain titles and these are usually pretty bad films that won't make most people want to check out more.  Turner Classic Movies never shows them either, which has always struck me as strange, although I believe someone said they showed them five or six years ago.  Very few people had the station back then. 

I could see the Andy Hardy series getting a full release because at least one of them is on television monthly.  That series has new fans coming each month who would be willing to buy an official release.  With the lack of exposure I'm really curious how many people even know who the Bowery Boys are and if they would care or not about any future release.  Even just showing their horror titles this month on TCM would at least draw them some new fans.  When they do show the Boys, it makes no sense, to me at least, to show those PD films each time.

Two of my favorite Bowery Boy films from the 40's are Bowery Bombshell and Angels In Disguise. I have both movies uncut, recorded from WGN in the 1980's. Gorcey is excellent in both films, most notably in Bowery Bombshell when he impersonates the gangster Cassalotti. The plot of Bowery Bombshell is a little disjointed, Angels In Disguise is the better movie but I enjoy both.

WGN stopped airing the Bowery Boys in 1987. I doubt if the films still remain in their library, sometimes I wonder what happened with their prints of these films.

Hi Michael
I think you are confusing The Bowery Boys with the East Side kids which is easy to do. There are 48 Bowery Boys films exactly. ESK have had alot of PD releases the Bowery Boys do not. Bowery Boys only had 6 films released on VHS by Warner in the early 90's. Any other release of them has been strickly bootleg. So the only other exposure of the Bowery Boys the last 20 years has been either TCM and in the 90's A & E was showing them for a little while.

I think that was meant to be satire.  The smiley gives it away.

 Sorry, noise.

It was satire, I had lost my humor for a couple of minutes.

Randy, I knew the difference between the two but I don't think most casual viewers are going to.  No matter what they're called, it's the same type of humor with pretty much the same cast.  Why TCM only shows the East Side Kids is the question I was trying to ask.  The only exposure most people has had is with ESK so throwing 50+ movies out on the market seems unlikely to me.  If these titles ARE coming in late 2010, wouldn't a year of them showing up on TV only get a few new fans willing to buy?

Well I guess that I am the first of the youngest generation to initially discover THE BOWERY BOYS films on television.

Don't for a moment underestimate the interests and knowledge of today's (so-called) younger DVD consumer (and there was recently a heated argument about this in one of the other discussion threads).

Most of what is learned nowadays comes via "word-of-mouth."  How many times in these very discussion threads has someone here said, "I never heard of THE INVADERS tv series before but on the strength of what you guys have been saying about it I bought the first season DVD set and I am glad that I did!"

So forums like HTF serve an important purpose one that (likely) wouldn't even have been considered.

When THE BOWERY BOYS films DVD releases are finally launched they will enjoy a veritable avalanche of online promotion and attention focused on them via all the DVD information and review services...you had better believe it!  It will be royally treated like a major event (which in a sense it is).

Just to reaffirm once again if the initial group of (six, seven or eight) BOWERY BOYS films are now in readiness for a volume one DVD set release then let's get this thing out some time in 2010 and let the retail sales speak for themselves.

There is no need to wait any further unless there are still some additional problems involved.

This is an issue which hopefully Ron will be able to shed further light on with his impending meeting with the Warner Brothers Home Entertainment powers-that-be in December.

I was never all that keen on a chronological release myself as I have never seen these films aired in their theatrical release order any way.  Speaking for myself I would have preferred a healthy (and diverse) blending of the early, middle and latter films in the series to be featured in each volume set.  If we had gone that way we would probably be on volume two or three by now.

Jeff T.

Edited by JeffT. - 10/23/09 at 4:52am

Did A&E run them all, or just a package of select episodes.?

The East Side Kids films are similar to the earlier Bowery Boys movies from 1946-49. One main difference is the East Side Kids had Sunshine Sammy Morrison aka Scruno in the films thru 1943. Some of the gags involving Scruno are hilarious, but people today are too sensitive and that type of humor is now considered as politically incorrect. The majority of East Side Kids films are fun and entertaining, Follow The Leader is one of my favorites. A couple other good ones are Bowery Blitzkrieg and Clancy Street Boys.

No Just a select package and then when TCM showed them in the late 90's they showed the first 43 in order and for some reason did not show the last 5.

I agree Joe in fact I only mildly enjoy the Dead End Kids and East Side Kids but I am a huge fan of The Bowery Boys. The Bowery Boys release on DVD would be a must buy even if it meant not eating for a week. The East Side Kids release I would think twice about but probably still buy but it wouldn't be a priority.

 I highly doubt they'll do anywhere near as well as people will like them to.

I think these will do as well as THE THREE STOOGES releases.

 You think that The Bowery Boys have anywhere near the name recognition value these days that the Stooges do? I can easily understand plenty of otherwise classics-indifferent people plopping money down for the Stooges, but who'd then say "Who?" if you asked them about the Bowery Boys.

Bowery Boys - The Three Stooges -  we are not talking apples to apples.

The Sony rep was on record as stating that the Three Stooges releases were doing so well that they were being handled by the new release department and not the catalog department.  Much as I would like to see the Bowery Boys, I'm the only person I know who even cares.

 Mdnitoil,

You've touched a nerve. While you might feel like you are the sole fan left for the Bowery Boys' opus, be assured that you are not alone. 

I have to admit that I'm 68 and saw a lot of the Bowery Boys films when they were first released to my local theater. Later when they began to appear on TV this was like a dream come true.  Sometime in my late teens, early 20 I got into 16mm sound film collecting and was able to legally purchase prints of several Bowery Boys films which I eventually showed to my own sons and their friends. Needless to say I have several BB titles in my DVD collection. 

My take on all this is that the BB films are not that well known because of the sparsity of titles available and the poor quality of those that are.

I keep watching and waiting for someone to do a decent restoration of some of  the BB titles.

Meanwhile I highly recommend the book "The Films of the Bowery Boys - A pictorial history of the Dead End Kids" by David Hayes and Brent Walker.  You might have to look on ebay.  I bought my hardback copy in 1982. This book covers all the films from all the various groupings that make up the complete Bowery Boys output. 

Thanks for your post. 

Richard

When The Bowery Boys start to appear on SpikeTV (a station aimed at younger people) then perhaps they'll be as well known as The Stooges.  You can say the Stooges to anyone and the majority of people are going to know them.  I doubt very many will know the BB.  Heck, I'd be willing to bet the majority of those viewing ESK movies are Bela Lugosi fans.

I certainly wasn't trying to portray myself as the only Bowery Boys fan, just trying to illustrate the difference between them and the Three Stooges.  To expect them to sell as well would be pretty unrealistic.  For the record, I really am the only person I know that's even heard of the Bowery Boys...but it's not like I know a ton of people!  Take that back.  My brother knows of them, but he doesn't buy movies.

All that aside, I certainly hope there is at least a big enough audience to see this thing through with a retail release.  The idea of 40+ films going to the Archives at 20 bucks a pop would be tough to swallow.  Even with bundling, it would get pretty ugly pretty quickly.

For me personally, I don't have a huge interest in these films being issued on DVD as I am satisfied with my private collection of the series. Of the 48 movies, 36 are recorded from WGN in Chicago and the remaining 12 are from other sources. All are uncut or very near uncut and the video/audio quality on most of the films is excellent. But for those who are waiting for these movies to be released on DVD, I hope an announcement will come soon. I just question whether Warner's would commit to releasing all 48 titles, but we'll see what happens.

This discussion forum is frequented by (important) representatives of Universal, Paramount and 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment and I am sure that these "rival" major DVD distributors are reading this particular discussion thread with both tremendous fascination and considerable amusement especially over Warner Brothers Home Entertainment's complete lack of determination and decisiveness in pursuing this particular DVD release.

Exhibiting weakness before your competition is something that any successful business can never afford to do.

Need I remind everyone here that it was Warner Brothers who first proposed releasing THE BOWERY BOYS on DVD not us!  And there must have been a good reason for them to do so.  We have conscientiously and enthusiastically supported this excellent proposal.  Quite frankly Warner Brothers cannot back down now without humiliatingly embarrassing repercussions as a consequence.

Don't doubt for a moment that big brother out there is watching!  And I am referring to the competition.

Another reason for the delay has been that other movie DVD releases were given priority status over THE BOWERY BOYS film series...none of which have done particularly well.  This is something that Warner Brothers has apparently acknowledged and hopefully the company will learn from this.  Encouraging or continually pursing failure is just not rational.  You just can't force things on people that they just are not interested in.  And that is especially true of the considerable younger aged demographic out there.

Robert Osborne may well be a great guy but deeming what the public is willing to watch on television and what they are willing to buy can be two different things entirely.  Let's face it this guy has been the (chief) architect in what disasterous directions Warner Brothers Home Entertainment has been following when marketing its extensive film library.  The blame rests with him.

Warner Brothers DVD film releases (unwisely) selected were (generally) failing long before the current U.S. recession came along so don't continue using this as an excuse.  In good times or bad the results would have been exactly the same.
'
As far as the Three Stooges are concerned I loved them as a kid but now I find them an absolute over-familiar bore.  Columbia has really milked this franchise for what it is worth to be sure.  But as both a kid and (now) an adult I have continued to like THE BOWERY BOYS film series as an overall superior comedy entertainment and I am (once again) supremely confident that it will prove its might with today's classic film DVD collector (which encompases all ages).

I adamently feel that people are open to something "old" (or vintage) that is unfamiliar, fresh and new to them.  I keep repeating myself because it is still being overlooked that THE BOWERY BOYS film series is a good representation of both 1940s and 1950s screen entertainment both of which are of considerable interest among classic movie buffs.

The most frustrating aspect to all this is that everything is set in place.  The world (including the overseas markets and Canada) are open to a BOWERY BOYS film series DVD release.  All is in readiness except its seems Warner Brothers Home Entertainment.

Jeff T.
Edited by JeffT. - 10/23/09 at 4:54am

Right now The Bowery Boys may not be as well-known as The Three Stooges, but then again right now Harold Lloyd is not as hot or well-known as Adam Sandler. So what? The films still need to come out, and I think a BB Collection will do well enough, especially if it's promoted right. I know plenty of people who know, remember, and like The Bowery Boys ... though they're all over the age of 40, and they recall them from being on TV when they were younger. Which is why I have always said it's important for these movies to be released as soon as possible, not later.  We'll also get a share of interested younger people to try out the comedy team, but the hardcore audience are older people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, who aren't getting any younger while waiting.

Growing up in New York in the 1970s I can tell you that while The Three Stooges are immensely popular right now, they also went through a real dry spell on TV in the 1970's ... they just were not shown until WPIX brought them back in 1979 and butchered them . But meanwhile, in the '70s the Bowery Boys were regularly shown on TV constantly, even in a weekly showcase called "Eastside Comedy".  Similarly, Abbott & Costello were shown every Sunday morning and they were a permanent fixture for kids in those days; however, Abbott & Costello today are nowhere to be seen on most regular TV stations. 

My point is, it's all relative. And if Warner's reading this I hope they don't get discouraged in any way by some of the "nobody knows the Bowery Boys" comments. How many 21st Century younger people do you think really know Mr. Moto or Charlie Chan today? And yet those box sets by Fox did well. Don't listen to the negatives, WB.